Report 566
Report #566 Skillset: Crow Skill: Decoy Org: Ebonguard Status: Rejected Apr 2011 Furies' Decision: We do not find this to be necessary. Problem: Decoy is an ability which is interesting but not particularly useful in most cases-- as it is an active skill it does not work on things such as tumble, leap, etc. so it is only applicable when you can walk out of the room normally (at which point you would be able to just keep on running in that direction anyways so you do not need it so much). Solution #1: Allow Decoy to also affect scries / room location abilities. When scried, the user will receive the name of a random room in the area the Crow user is in. Thus it cannot be used like stealth mask (to hide entirely) and the person will know where you are in general... but the specifics, well, you have set up a decoy! Solution #2: Allow it to be a defense that will modify tumbles, leaps, etc. as well as normal movement (this has been rejected in the past, but the skill still does not see much use). Solution #3: A new verb to the skill that lets the Crow user 'mark' a room (erecting a decoy of themselves). For 5 minutes, any scries on the Crow user will instead receive the location that the decoy is built in. This would cost 5p to activate. Player Comments: ---on 4/12 @ 21:27 writes: Solution 3 is the third option because while it is useful, it feels like it mirrors Stealth masking rather closely. I'd rather have it be its own unique flavour. ---on 4/13 @ 12:37 writes: Solution one sounds quite cool, I'd really like to see it. You do not mention the specifics of duration or power cost... can it be stripped (critique user maybe)? ---on 4/14 @ 07:11 writes: Not sure being able to hide your melder so easily is a good thing. Even if they have to be adjacent for effects, not being able to tell which direction is a very big advantage for very little cost. Perhaps a decent failure rate so you can still locate the druid, it just takes a little bit longer to do so. No problems with solution 2, though - perhaps a defense which just picks a random exit rather than requiring setup (and thus possibly being room-specific). ---on 4/15 @ 04:28 writes: I have to agree with Akyaevin that hiding the melder is too good, and solutions 1 and 3 are far too much. There's no comparison to be made. In solution 1, stealth mask is mentioned, but it does not prevent scrying, nor does deepcover. Stealth veil, a 5p -transcendent- skill, does, but lasts only three minutes. Decoy is a 25% expert skill. This leaves solution 2, which I can agree to if it is an activated defense that drops on movement and has a short eq cost (similar to stealth mislead). ---on 4/15 @ 11:08 writes: Veil is the one I meant to compare it to. Veil goes quite a ways beyond any of the suggestions here in that it provides absolutely zero information about where the individual is-- not even Plane or Area. That's why I do not feel like something as per solution 1 is 'far too much'. You know in general where the person is. If they are with their group, it's easy enough to find them. If they are not... well, while you may not be able to find them with scry so easily they are still vulnerable, just protected by Crow's deceit... until located. Further, what's the problem with hiding the melder? There is a demesne that changes the room name of melded rooms, which even hides area & plane unless you have a dingbat map. ---on 4/16 @ 18:28 writes: I like solution 2, though this working for tumble is a little iffy for me, its not really such a huge big deal. Decoy should work for leaps and other similar movements, though. ---on 4/18 @ 22:32 writes: Veil doesn't remove from WHO list and seek will still bypass veil. My point is that veil is a transcendent skill specific to an archetype that does not hold area-wide effects, whereas decoy is neither. I think decoy being a transcendent skill in crow would be worthy of the the other two solutions, but I still think they're too strong. Group combat revolves around melders. Not so much monks (but they do contribute!). ---on 4/19 @ 02:57 writes: Er, veil removes the entire location from the WHO list, all that's there is the name (which I guess does show plane if the person does not have a gem of cloaking). Scry, however, shows nada. And, once again, I point out that there is already a melder with the ability to hide their location from scries. That said I do not mind modifying the position of the skill in the skillset! ---on 4/25 @ 04:04 writes: The melder who can hide their position also can't locate their enemies due to it and it equally affects their allies. Even so, mirage is viewed as a very powerful ability. This proposed change would be strictly superior to it even with a power cost. ---on 4/25 @ 22:25 writes: That's assuming their enemies are inside the demesne and haven't broken it (which is generally rather unlikely), so I'm not sure how they can't locate their enemies due to it...